Swallowing Pride
by ju97ju97
Summary: This is Zutara/Taang/Sukka fanfic! first chap 2 introduce relationships between characters - please read on past it if you don't like it. WAT before boiling rock. R&R! Make me feel loved! Story better than summary! Chap 5 up!
1. Chapter 1 Iroh

Hey Guys!! This is my first fanfic so please review and tell me what you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avartar : the Last Air Bender, but neither do you!! hehe

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Chapter 1: General Iroh 

It was midday at the Western Air Temple and Zuko and Aang were in the middle of yet another training session.

Since Zuko's arrival, only Aang and Toph had warmed up to him; Sokka and especially Katara still didn't trust him. At this moment in time, Sokka was on the verge of trust; he liked the guy, yeah sure he had a complicated past, and could attack them at any moment if he wanted, but he obviously wanted to help and redeem himself after his past mistakes. Katara, however, still hated his guts after his betrayal in Ba Sing Se.

Aang's training was going really well. After he and Zuko had been to the Sun Warrior civilisation and they had faced the masters, he was looking at fire in a whole different light. Before, he had been cocky and overconfident and had therefore burned Katara. He never quite forgave himself for that and so was consequentially very timid around fire. Then he had been shown visions of the meaning of fire by the dragons and had changed his perspective on fire for it to not just be destruction as Zhong-Zhong had said, but life as well.

Katara watched in silence as both Aang and Zuko aimed fire blasts at each other. Every time even a puff of smoke erupted from Zuko's fist, she felt queasy. She refused to forget the times that he had mercilessly attacked them. She also refused to trust him – she didn't want to feel the pain of another betrayal like in the caverns of Ba Sing Se.

Zuko was distracted as he attempted to improve both the Avatar's fire bending and his own. _Where has Uncle gone?_ These thoughts of his tea-loving, probably mentally unstable uncle crept through his mind. He tried to block them out so he could concentrate, but death-stares being aimed in his direction from a certain water-tribe peasant weren't helping at all. He wanted to spit at her: _'why can't you just trust me already you peasant?! After all, I've been with you for a couple of weeks now! I haven't done anything in that time to suggest that you shouldn't trust me!!!'_

He decided against bursting into a rage.

Just then, a perfectly aimed blast came within centimetres of his face, yanking him out of his reverie.

"Are you okay?!" an extremely worried looking avatar rushed over just as he fell to the ground, his good side being singed. Katara let a grin widen on her lips.

"Katara! Get over here!" Aang's face was so good at the puppy-dog look. "Katara, you've got to heal Zuko!" Her Smile lessened at this, but she had to admit, as much as she hated him, she couldn't let his good side scar as well. That would just be cruel.

She covered her hands in a glove of water. They glowed slightly. She let out an audible giggle as she saw Zuko's face when she started to heal him. It was distorted into the shape of an embarrassed pout.

Through all of this going on, Toph had been quietly (well if you could call it quiet) earth-bending.

She suddenly stopped and looked up from the area of wounded rock which she had been practicing on. She looked around to make sure no one would notice if she quickly snuck off. She smirked – no one would ever know.

As quietly as she could, she bended herself onto the sunlit ridge under which was the hidden temple.

"Hello again!" was all she could say because her visitor gave her a big bear hug. "It's so good to see you again!" she squeaked as he pulled her in tighter. There was nothing she could do because he had lifted her off the ground and was holding her so tightly that she couldn't move her arms, legs or even her head.

He finally let go of her and she breathed the warm air in deeply to fill up her now flat lungs.

"It is so good to see you Toph!" Iroh said, tears glistening at his eyes. "May I come down and join you?"

"Of course you may Iroh! We would all be glad to see you again! Did you know Zuko is with us?"

At this, Iroh's eyes narrowed. "So he has finally seen sense has he?" Toph nodded happily. "And he's not trying to kill you all?" Again, Toph nodded.

"I'm sure he'll be really glad to see you." Toph gave him a warm smile.

Katara had finished healing Zuko whose face was still bright red with embarrassment and irritation.

Suddenly, they all heard a huge rumble as a giant rock floated down to them. They all took fighting stances, when Appa bellowed a huge grumble as Toph and Zuko's Uncle descended.

"Uncle!" Zuko happily shouted.

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Ok. so, seriously, tell me what you think. I don't care if it's bad, but say stuff that I can work on!! 


	2. Chapter 2 The Full Moon

Chapter Two – The Full Moon

For the first time since Zuko arrived, there was peace. This was quite an achievement, wholly thanks to Iroh who kept Zuko and Katara apart at all times.

Every one had felt relief as soon as Iroh had arrived and now Aang was progressing much faster in fire bending now that he had come along. It turned out that Uncle was probably the best fire bending teacher in the whole of the fire nation as he had had so much experience and seen the master dragons.

It carried on for a few days like this in a peaceful trance: fire bending in the morning, earth bending and water bending in the afternoon and air bending whenever Aang needed a break. It was working pretty well, and every night, everyone would go to bed exhausted. But not tonight.

Tonight was a full moon, and, as such, Katara couldn't sleep. She snuck outside and stripped down to her undergarments to do some water bending. Just the flow of the water was enough to relax her and make her happy just for a second. She couldn't help it – she broke down and cried.

Zuko had woken up. The moon was bright outside his window and its rays fell across his face. He decided that he couldn't sleep and that he should go outside and fire-bend out all of his extra energy.

Outside was not what he expected. As soon as he was in the courtyard, a crying water bender filled his vision and he felt pity. He shook his head: _I shouldn't feel pity for someone who hates me! _Involuntarily, he walked a few steps forward, only to be stopped by a wrinkled old hand.

"Sit down Nephew" Iroh said quietly.

That was when Zuko realised that everybody else was sitting there watching the weeping figure of Katara.

Rather rudely, Zuko asked "What's the matter wither her? And why isn't anyone trying to help her?"

Sokka answered his questions, too preoccupied with making sure his sister was okay to notice the hint of annoyance in his voice. "My sister gets like this every full moon. She does some water bending and then she just cries. It's been like that ever since our mom died. As for why we aren't over there trying to help her, it's just we've all tried on different nights and every time we get attacked." Almost as an after-thought, he added "We do worry about her."

Zuko smiled at that. But he still was irritated that he hadn't answered his main question, so he sat down with the rest of the group and asked, "But why?"

Sokka sighed. "None of us know for sure, but I have a theory."

Every one shuffled closer to Sokka as he said this: evidently, he hadn't shared his theory to anyone.

"I think that it is because nearly all of the heartbreaking experiences have landed on a full moon." The others gave him a quizzical look. "I mean think about it! Our mom, our dad left, we nearly lost the north pole, we lost at Ba Sing Se, Aang was nearly killed all on a full moon! Also, I think that Zuko's betrayal really messed her up!"

Zuko, for the very first time in his life, felt true guilt. To hear those sobs that were the essence of misery and to think that he helped cause them. He hated himself. This thought nearly knocked him over. _How could a water tribe peasant make him feel such emotions? _

"I'm going to see if I can help" he stated, and before anyone could stop him, he was walking towards the crumpled form of Katara.

Katara heard him coming, but decided to wait until he was next to her so that she could get a good shot at him.

She heard him walk up right next to her and stop when he was inches away.

"Katara?" he asked, obviously a bit wary.

That was when she stood up, wiped away her tears, which had stained her face, and took her fighting stance, but was surprised when he stood still.

"Are you okay?" he asked in an oddly friendly and concerned way.

But Katara wasn't listening or watching him, but if she did look at him, se would see the genuine concern in his eyes. Instead, however, she was focused on what was going on in the courtyard next to theirs, which was separated with a solid wall.

"Take the others and hide and don't come out until I say so" Katara ordered before running to the next courtyard leaving everyone else stunned. She stopped on the other side of the wall, standing face to face with the princess of the fire nation.

"Azula."


	3. Chapter 3 Lightening

Chapter 3 – Lightening

The tension was so absolute that you could cut it with a knife. The fire bender wasn't going to lose and neither was the water bender. It world be a fight to the death. Just the look in their eyes could tell you that; they were staring daggers at each other.

Katara was at her finest: there was a full moon and she needed someone to fight – this was perfect. She was poised to fight. Azula was in front of her and she could sense through the water in the air that Ty Lee and Mai were hidden and ready to ambush her.

Just at this point, when the fire benders believed that Katara was distracted, Ty Lee tried her attack. If you didn't know that she was there, then you would not have kept your bending. She dived out of a cavern in the ceiling at lightening speed aiming directly at Katara's pressure points.

Katara snatched open her flask and struck a blow at Ty Lee while she was still in mid air and so couldn't dodge. The jet of water punctured her directly through the chest and the acrobat began to fall.

"Don't even think about it" Katara hissed. "You might as well come out too Mai." She said, no surprise in her voice.

The surprise entirely came from the shocked Azula, who had thought that this would be an easy fight.

"So you knew that they were there all along did you?" Katara nodded her head in assent. "Clever. Come down Mai." Mai jumped down from her hiding place and glared at the person who had just killed her friend. "I was wondering, have you seen Zuko by any chance?" Azula questioned.

"No I haven't. In fact, I'm a little surprised, as we normally see him at least one a week trying to kill us." Katara said smoothly.

"Are you sure?" Azula asked, surprised by her casual reference to the times that Zuko had tried to kill them.

Katara cracked. "Do you really think that we would let that bastard into our group after he betrayed us at Ba Sing Se?!" Katara's fists were now shaking and a tear of anger and hurt was appearing at the corner of her eye.

The venom in her words made Azula and everyone else flinch. Zuko didn't quite realize that she hated him this much. Aang was equally surprised. He would have never let Zuko into the group if he had known how much it hurt Katara for him to be there.

Azula was surprised that Zuko still hadn't been seen. The pure hatred that rang in the water bender's words were enough to prove that Zuko wasn't here.

It took all of Katara's will power to hold back the tears again. She had already failed stopping herself from crying once this night and she wasn't going to fail again.

Mai couldn't bear this any longer. The only reason she had come was so that she could kill Zuko for hurting her so much in leaving. She wrenched her eyes away from Ty Lee's lifeless body that was now in a pool of blood and started shooting daggers at Katara.

Katara brought up an ice-shield to protect herself from the fast flying objects. She stuck to the water that was in her flask as it would be a lot lighter than the water that positively shivered in the air waiting for her command. It would also be a lot faster to use and therefore make more deadly strikes on Mai.

Katara started shooting ice-daggers towards Mai.

Zuko couldn't watch. He couldn't help Mai because 1. he knew that she only wanted to kill him, 2. he was now on the Avatar's side and 3. he couldn't betray Katara again – he didn't want to feel the hatred that he did towards himself because of his betraying her. However, he couldn't help Katara because 1. she had told him to keep himself and the others hidden 2. she could handle this easild on her own and 3. she would kill him if he tried.

He had pretty much figured out her battle plan – kill the three of them and don't let anyone else be seen in case she failed.

He was suddenly jerked back to reality by Azula's evil laugh. Katara had managed to kill Mai.

"Well, well. I didn't expect you to manage to get rid of those two." Azula laughed. "I have obviously underestimated you – you have just killed two of the fire nation's finest! Now, lets see how you fare against the best. Me."

The battle was on.

Katara was tired as Azula started shooting lightening at her, this did not help her chances at winning however, she still fought as well as she could and kept up optimistic thoughts: _'two down, one to go!', 'at least Aang and the others are safe.'_

Meanwhile, Aang and the others were desperately worried about Katara. The only thing that kept them from helping was, first of all, they didn't want to ruin her plan and secondly, they all feared her wrath if they were to help her. So they contented themselves worrying.

From their point of view, the battle was really heating up. Azula was panting but was still fighting as hard as ever. Every attack made by both parties was completely deadly.

Then came the turning point.

At the same time as each other, Azula shot lightening at Katara and Katara send ice daggers at Azula. Both attacks simultaneously hit their victims in the stomach.

What happened nest seemed to happen in slow motion. They were both falling, blood seeping out of their wounds.

"Katara!" Aang ran forward as fast as he could, but in his view he couldn't run fast enough. He caught her mid-fall, just as she had all those weeks ago in Ba Sing Se.

Her last words were "I'm sorry Aang."


	4. Chapter 4 The Avatar State

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Chapter Four – the Avatar State

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Aang wanted to scream all night and forever after that. She was dead and that was all that mattered right now.

The monks had told him about broken hearts, but they only told him why it happened, not any of the details that he was experiencing right now. His heart felt like it was being wrenched out of his chest as his whole world shattered. He could vaguely sense the others trying to make him feel better behind him, but he wouldn't release his grip on her.

His arrows started to flicker like a spark that is desperate to ignite.

It all happened too quickly. One moment, he was mourning the loss of his love, the next his arrows were blinding everyone else with their glow.

He was in the spirit world, tears still streaming down his face with a half amazed, half sympathetic look on his face.

"She's gone Roku." Aang whimpered.

"The people we love are never gone Aang, they are always with us, wherever we go." Roku's sympathy turned to amazement again. "You must have really loved this girl. Before you were not able to go into the avatar state because when Azula's lightening bolt hit you, your heart locked up to the cosmic energy, but now that your love is in the spirit world, your heart is accepting the energy in the hope that you will see her again."

It did make sense after all. "Hang on; you said she's in the spirit world right?" Aang asked Roku.

"Yes that is what I said" Roku replied with a bemused look in his eye. Realisation to what the young avatar meant hit him. "But there is only one way to bring her back from here."

"Anything Roku!" Aang said; hope shining all about him.

"If you wanted to bring this girl back, you would have to give up the avatar state permanently. You would still be able to come to the spirit world, but we could no longer give you our powers. Think about this hard, as you may regret your decision, whatever it may be, in the future."

"Obviously I'll save Katara!" Aang said, smiling. "Sure the avatar state is great and all, but without Katara I wouldn't be able to survive normally, never mind in battle."

"It seems your mind is made up." Roku sighed and summoned Katara's spirit. Aang was surprised. In her spirit form, he could see how happy she really was and she wouldn't know because even in the spirit world, she was unconscious. He did not expect what he saw.

She was miserable about all the deaths and losses she had suffered; she was hurt at all of the betrayals that she had sustained; she was worried that they wouldn't survive and she was at the end of her rope with all of the problems that people had poured out to her as she had no one to share her problems with herself. The only thing that kept her going was the hope that they would succeed and the love of all her friends. But Aang in that moment promised himself that he would help her more-she needed support.

So he took Katara's spirit in his arms and came back to the physical world.

Aang was still holding her to his chest, tears still fresh on his face. He looked down at her, remembering what he had seen.

"Ughh" Katara moaned.

A chorus of "Katara" was all around causing her to moan again with the sudden noise.

"Thanks Aang" were the only words she managed before she slipped back into unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5 Truce

Sorry it took so long! I've been on holiday where I couldn't get any internet signal! next chapter should be up way sooner!

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Chapter Five – Truce

When Katara woke up, she was surrounded by a blinding light. She tried to move her hand to cover her eyes, but nothing happened. It was as if her whole body had been numbed to what she wanted it to do, so she contented herself to move her head to look around. This was not a brilliant idea as her head throbbed like mad.

She had been moved to her room. That was when it came back to her – the fights, the deaths. She felt horrible. Azula and her cronies may have been monsters, but even they deserved a chance for reconciliation, didn't they? She settled to the fact that she was emotionally unstable and wasn't truly in control of her actions. This was good. This made her feel better.

She continued to scour the room with her eyes. Nothing was out of place – all of her belongings were where she left them, however a light chuckle brought her out of her reverie.

"Finally awake are we?" She traced the voice to the uninhabited corner of her room.

"Zuko" she hissed. She would have attacked, but her body still wouldn't heed her commands. "What did you so to me?"

"I was afraid that if you woke up while it was my turn to watch you, you'd attack me, so I used what I learnt from Ty Lee to keep my self alive." There was sincerity and fear in his voice when he said this, so she guessed that he had watched her kill his sister and the others. She had to hand it to him, however, he was actually quite resourceful when he realised a person wanted to kill him.

Hang on, _'when it was my turn to watch you'_. What was that supposed to mean?

"Okay. How long was I out and how long will I have to enjoy your company due to my paralysed state?" Her tone was curious, sarcastic, threatening and demanding at the same time. Zuko remembered how much venom she had used when talking about him his sister and yet how she had risked her life for him and the others. So, he decided to ignore her attempt at goading him and answer her questions.

"You've been out for ten days and you'll be paralysed for no more than another half and hour."

"Joy!" she said with false enthusiasm. "Hang on; you said _'when it was my turn to watch you'_. Who else has been in here while I've been unconscious?"

"Everyone. Originally, we tried to keep Aang out so that he could continue training with earth and fire undisturbed, but we just couldn't keep him out – he's been worried sick! So we let him come here during your water bending slots. Sokka has also been acting really strangely while you were out. I don't think anyone has seen him so down before. He keeps saying how he is you _'big brother and as such should have protected you from Azula'_."

She had to admit, there worry was really sweet. She could tell though; as soon as they realised she was awake, Sokka and Aang were going to be apologising for hours on end. She was going to have to have one-to-ones with both of them to make sure that she realised that it wasn't their fault at all that Azula didn't want to go down without bringing someone else with her. That was another matter – did she manage to kill Azula?

"Are they dead?"

Her question startled him; why would she doubt that they were dead? He guessed that she didn't doubt it – she only needed reassurance.

"Yes, they are dead."

She let out a huge breath and a surge of relief showed itself on her features before her face clouded over again.

"Are you okay?" She hated herself for asking. He was supposed to be the enemy for crying out loud! His confusion at the question was evident. "I mean, I know you weren't exactly 'best buddies' with Azula, but she was your sister after all. And then Ty Lee, I mean you paralysed me with her technique, so you can't have been totally distant with her, and then weren't you close to Mai?"

He understands. He smiles at the concern of his enemy-turned-friend. Apparently, she won't hate him forever.

"First of all, Azula wasn't a sister, she was a monster. Second, Ty Lee was a teacher – when I decided to leave to come here, I realised that I would need to know as much as I could to help us and third… how did you know about Mai?"

"Well whenever we mention her in our battle plans, you seem to shrink from the talk, and then when we mention the governor, your face clouds over, so the logical connection is that you were close to her. You want to talk about it?"

The words slipped from her mouth as they seemed to have been doing a lot recently. Well, she couldn't take it back now.

"Mai and I have known each other since we were tiny through our connections to Azula. She and I always liked each other, but then, before we could have a relationship, I was banished." He wasn't sure why he was telling her this, but it felt good. It was like a giant weight being lifted off his shoulders. He had never had this feeling except for in the crystal catacombs when he had told her about his mother, which had made him feel better than he had since his mother had left. He realised that if he told her more, then she would have more power over him if she ever needed to get to him, but now that the tap of confessions had been turned on he couldn't easily stop it.

"When I came back, Mai seemed to want to make up for lost time and so we 'hit it off' as the phrase goes. She made my time at the palace bearable – In my father's eyes I was finally the perfect prince because Azula told him that it was me who took down the avatar – Aang – because she could see my doubt that he was dead so she wanted to cover up her tracks; she gave me the glory because he was alive and the glory would _'turn to shame'_. That's why I sent the assassin. Anyway, being cruel for my father just wasn't me, but with her I could be myself, and she wouldn't hate me for it. It wasn't love or anything, at least on my part, she was just there for me and I really appreciated it."

Katara's face was no longer stony towards him; it was filled with compassion and understanding – something that he hadn't seen towards him since the crystal catacombs. He found that he really appreciated it.

She sat up. "The effects must've worn off during our talk." She sounded almost sorry, and she was. She enjoyed this talk more than she had with the others talks – it must've been the fact that he knew that she hated him and yet he had still shared his secrets with her. It showed that he trusted her, and though she hated to admit it: "I think it's time for me to give you another chance – truce?"

"Truce." He was elated. She was finally starting to trust him!

Katara attempted standing up but promptly fell down again. Ten days bedridden had not done much good to her legs' strength.

"Let me help you." Zuko stood up, walked over to the bed, draped Katara's arm over his shoulder and started walking with her while taking most of her weight.

They started navigating the corridors towards the meeting area. This was a silent, but not uncomfortable journey in which only one sentence was uttered just before they came out to greet the others:

"I enjoyed our talk today Zuko."

Any other talk was stopped by the loud shout from Top:

"Guess who's back in the land of the living!"

They rounded the corner to a loud chorus of "Katara!!" and a smothering of hugs from both parties.

yay! a truce has been called! please when you are reviewing vote for either kataraXaang or zukoXkatara because I can't go much further in both directions!!


	6. Chapter 6 Revenge and Convincing

Chapter 6 – Revenge, Change and Lotuses

Chapter 6 – Revenge and Convincing

Unfortunately, before anyone could get the hug that they wanted, a large boulder slammed Katara and Zuko into the wall.

"Toph!" Katara shouted, "What's this for?!" Her voice was raspy as she struggled to get sufficient air into her lungs after being winded and having her rib cage crushed.

A snicker came from the accused bender as she replied, "That's my revenge for Sparky, Sugar Queen! Sorry you got in the way, but he was distracted and easy to get at that point, and I took the opportunity gladly."

A groan came from 'Sparky' and a snigger from 'Sugar Queen'.

"Toph that's pathetic!" Zuko sent her a questioning glance, as in his opinion, crushing the two of them against a wall was certainly not pathetic. "Honestly, you couldn't get a decent shot at him for two weeks?! You're losing your touch!"

He had to laugh at that. It was just impossible not to. He had to admit as well, that she had a much better sense of humour than her brother, even if the others disagreed.

A red-faced Toph squeezed Katara's side of the trap harder and shouted, "So what are you going to do about it?"

Katara laughed at this. Now that he wasn't threatened by certain death, he found himself enjoying the sound of her laugh; it was so much better than death glares and hissing. "You really want to know?" this earned a nod from the blind earth bender, who had a smirk on her face – in her opinion, the water bender had no good forms of revenge. "Fine! Zuko and I get your meat rations for a week! And if you don't let us down now, it'll be two weeks!"

A completely mortified Toph immediately withdrew her earth, letting Zuko and Katara drop down. Katara thought to herself, after looking herself and Zuko up and down again, _'this is going to leave some serious bruises.'_ She smiled anyway, though. Things were looking up and her friends were fighting over who would get a hug first.

In the end, they resolved to all hug her together, resulting in an even more bruised Katara.

To her surprise, Zuko was right – Mai and Ty Lee did seem pretty happy. Only Ty Lee joined in with the hug, but after she was let go from their death-grip, they both thanked her for sparing them under such difficult circumstances.

Katara wanted the short peace to last forever, but of course, she had to be brought back to earth by the cackles of Azula; "So she's alive is she?"

The water bender strode up to their charge and looked down at her. Ty Lee had taken away her bending, and she was certainly worse for wear. There was a bandage over her torso where her icicle had hit. Her clothes were singed – her fire blasts had been so fierce, she had even burnt herself in places. In all, she pitied the girl who was in chains.

Toph had metal bent her armour into shackles and she was attached to the wall with the strongest chains she had ever seen. Toph noticed her studying the chains.

"Admiring my handiwork are we? That metal was hell to bend – the fire nation certainly spared no expense when kitting out their princess."

Katara smiled at this. Toph could be very determined and she was proud of her. The earth bender smiled as she picked up the approving vibrations from the water bender.

The water tribe girl turned around and said; "alright, Toph and I will talk to her, and you guys can get back to whatever you were doing before." They all departed and left them on queue, except for Mai and Ty Lee.

"I think you might need our help here" Mai said. Katara and Toph smiled – they were going to need all of the help they could get.

"Guys, can you hold her for me – I need to heal her wounds." The girls complied. Azula struggled at first in their grip, but in seeing there was no point, she gave in. Katara lifted the water out of the air and wrapped it around her hand in a healing glove. With the other hand, she unwrapped the girl's bandages.

The look of horror on her face was unmistakeable. The girl's wound was deeper than she had meant for it to be, and, it was infected.

"Sorry Sugar Queen," said a shamefaced Toph, "none of us know haw to heal. We washed it every day, but it just didn't go away. We used the water from the how springs at the bottom of the canyon because we thought that because it was hot, it would be clean."

Katara put her had to her head and sighed. "You do know that because it's warm, lots of creatures live in the water, we also bathe and wash clothes in that water. It's not the cleanest I can think of."

"I'm sorry Sugar Queen." A very humbled Toph replied. Katara didn't think that she had ever seen Toph humbled, and was quite surprised. However, she let it slide as her patient needed the most attention right now.

She circled the healing glove over the girls wound. It would heal in one healing session as long as it was intense. It would also be a long one.

Azula was surprised when no one questioned her or tried to convince her to join them. So, not enjoying the uncomfortable silence, asked her own question. "How do you do that?"

Katara realised the question was aimed at her but had no idea how to answer. How did she do what?

"How do you pull water out of the air, you stupid peasant!"

Katara realised she had voiced her question out loud. Toph was gritting her teeth at the peasant comment, but with a subtle glare at her from Mai and Ty Lee, she didn't say anything.

"Water is everywhere; it's in the air, plants and even in our own bodies."

Azula was surprised she answered her question. After all, it was dangerous for her to tell her secrets to her enemies. Hang on a second … she said there is water in our bodies … can she …

"Does that mean you can force somebody's body to do something against their will?"

"Yes I can." The simple confession made tears spring to Katara's eyes. "I can blood bend. I hate it. I could force my will on someone else, I could make their heart implode. It's horrible having that power. It makes me feel like a monster." Azula's head reeled as she realised the danger of her situation. The girl healing her could kill her in a matter of seconds if she was made to – hate it or not, everyone had a breaking point.

"How do you make blue fire? Sorry for asking, but you're the only bender I've seen that can use blue fire."

Azula guessed this would be a trading-questions interrogation. She was willing to play along.

"It comes from having enough power, determination and strength. Too little, and you can only make orange flames. It proves that I'm the greatest fire bender you've ever met." The smugness in her voice reflected the smirk on her face. It was her turn to ask a question. Hopefully, she could turn the water bender to her side and have an all – controlling ally.

"Why does being able to blood-bend make you feel like a monster? After all, you could force someone bad to do something good, for example." Azula realized that saying this was a risk; the girl could agree and control her for the rest of her life.

"No one deserves not to have free will." She replied. "Even if I were to do it to someone evil, it would only succeed in making me just as bad as them. I've recently come to the realisation that blood-bending is okay as long as it is only used for healing. You know, internal bleeding and such."

Azula was impressed. So were Toph, Ty Lee and Mai. They thought that she would have grasped the opportunity to turn Azula good, however, she remained determined that she would do this the honourable way.

"I'm sorry if this is a personal question, but why do you hate Zuko so much? I mean, he's your brother and you keep trying to kill him."

Azula was shocked. What happened to learning each others abilities and tactics? She was right too. It was a seriously personal question. As if sensing her discomfort, the water bender apologised.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to answer. It was a very personal question."

Azula panicked. If she didn't answer, would the blue-clad-girl answer her questions? If she didn't, then it would be harder to get to her. She breathed a sigh and decided to answer. No-one would know if she was lying or not, so it didn't matter if she told the truth. The little girl inside of her had always wanted to talk to someone about it.

"No, it's okay." Was she just gentle? "When I was very young, before my father had plans to take the throne, we were a normal family. My mom, dad, Zuko and me. Of course we had our arguments, that's what brothers and sisters do. Anyway, when Lu Ten, Uncle's son, died, Zuko drew within himself. Lu Ten had been the big brother Zuko had never had. Mom and I tried to help him, but he just wouldn't respond. That's when father started his ambitions. He encouraged me to hate weakness, and Zuko was weakness – he was grieving, so he wasn't strong in father's eyes. Zuko hated me for thinking he was weak. Then father proclaimed me to be a prodigy. Zuko hated me more than ever for 'turning father against him' and I hated him for being weak and the fact that he hated me. I trusted him and he decided that I was evil. I never quite recovered."

"I'm so, so sorry." These were the gentle, sincere words Katara who at present was wiping away her tears at the sad story. It was then that Azula also realised that she was crying. She then promptly asked everyone to leave her alone. Katara nodded, wrapped Azula's midriff back up, now without infection, and left along with Toph, Mai and Ty Lee after explaining that she'd be back tomorrow for another healing session.

Azula slumped as soon as they were out of sight. _'Why did I have to tell the truth?_' She asked herself desperately.

Across the temple, Sokka and Zuko were sparring. Since joining, not only was Zuko teaching Aang fire bending, but was also helping Sokka with his sword skills. As usual, the warrior was getting tired fast, so Zuko called a break.

"Great Sokka! Your doing really well."

Sokka glowed with the praise and smiled his trademark goofy smile. His expression then turned serious.

"Zuko?" he asked, "where would the Fire Nation keep prisoners of war from the invasion?"

Zuko sat next to Sokka with his back to the wall. "Probably in the Boiling Rock." At Sokka's questioning look, he expanded. "It's a prison just outside the Fire Nation and it's impossible to get out. It's mainly used for dangerous criminals," Sokka's eyes narrowed, "but they probably see your invasion force as a serious threat and will have put them there." Zuko amended.

"Thanks Zuko."


End file.
